61team, just back from America, having
won the Wakefi eld cup after a break
of nearly ten years (I remember it like
it was yesterday). How proud we UK
aeromodellers were, and to top it all, it
had been won by a 23 years old Roy
Chesterton with his E W Evans-designed
Jaguar. Not only that, but inside there
was a reduced scale plan and article
of the winning aeroplane, written by
Mr Evans. Just looking at the Jaguar,
you can see that this model was so
innovative with its instantly recognisable
lower-fi n with undercarriage - no wonder
that it won for Great Britain.Going back to 1948
I scaled up the plan of the Jaguar and
with the help of late nights in the kitchen
I built my aeroplane in a week (no telly in
those days). I test fl ew it on the following
Saturday and entered it in a competitionat Ford aerodrome the following
day where, with its three fl ights
totalled, it placed second with
800 turns wound on the rubber
motor. It was a couple of weeks
later at another competition
that I wound on 1,100 turns -
and it fl ew away OOS (Out Of
Sight). I later built a second
and third Jaguar, all of which
performed so wonderfully; they thrilled
me and many other fellow aeromodellers
wherever I fl ew. To me it was the peak of
performance, comparable to a Formula
One Ferrari or Mercedes, and I felt like
Lewis Hamilton.And Now...
The memories that my late-night reading
evoked reminded me of how much
fun I had enjoyed all those years ago.
I decided to go back some 70 years,
get another plan - and build another
Jaguar. To get all of the necessary “bits
and bobs” would then need a visit to my
local Avicraft model shop and to the ever
helpful guy, Robert Newman.
I had just, coincidentally, written a
piece for the monthly Internet “Sticks
& Tissue” magazine, and I was off ered
help from a number of readers including
Phillip Coupe who way back had been
a member of the same Northamptonclub as Mr Evans. From a search on my
computer, I located the Northampton
Model Shop, 230 Wellingborough Road,
Northampton, and a quick telephone
call gave me a wonderful, kindly owner
whose name was Nick Evans. So tongue
in cheek, I asked him “if he happened to
know Ted Evans”. “Yes” was the reply
“he was my father, how can I help.”
Small world, huh? I asked this son of the
famous legend “how did your father fi t a
dethermaliser to his winning aeroplane
designs” and he said “he would do
some research”. Well, l not only did he
do that, but in a couple of days he also
emailed me some pictures of his father’s
original tailplane showing details of the
dethermaliser installation. But the best
bit was this - he also sent me a super
plan of the Jaguar! Now come on, you
can’t get that sort of treatment on the
internet!Reading
To sum up, I will never ever give up my
wonderful books, old and new, no matter
how “proper” it is to read them instead
on the Internet. Please ignore anyone
who says that people no longer read
paper, because I’ll bet that many people
do. Books are real - and for me, so many
of them are “page-turners” which bring
back such happy memories.
Anyone wishing to have a chat
and discuss, can email me at:
[email protected] ■at Ford aerodrome the following
day where, with its three fl ights
totalled, it placed second with
800 turns wound on the rubber
motor. It was a couple of weeks
later at another competition
that I wound on 1,100 turns -
and it fl ew away OOS (Out Of
Sight). I later built a second
and third Jaguar, all of whichThe photo of the DT tip-up tailplane on
a Jaguar, kindly provided by Nick Evans
of the Model Shop http://www.modelshop-
northants.co.ukE. W. Evans described his approach to designing the Jaguar in October 1948 AM. We’ll make the article available at http://www.aeromodeller.comJAGUAR.indd 61 26/04/2018 15:34